One with God's help, dependent
on the Holy Spirit again this evening. We will turn once more
to his word and to the epistle to the Colossians and chapter
two. Colossians chapter two and verses
nine and 10. I'll read them again together. Colossians two, verses nine and
10. For in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in him, which is
the head of all principality and power. As we said this morning,
our real focus is just those two words, in him. In the Gospels, we read of an occasion
when the Lord Jesus Christ went over the Sea of Galilee and met
with a man who was possessed of many devils. And in fact,
he called himself that name of Legion because there was so many,
so many that had control over him and his life was so dreadful
and he lived in such an awful state. And then the Lord Jesus
Christ comes. He comes and heals him. And those many devils are cast
out and cast down into the swine. And the people who had beheld,
who had seen this, They went into the town, into the city
and told them what had happened. And so many of them came out
and they found this man, now we're told in his right mind,
sitting at the feet of Jesus. A remarkable miracle had taken
place. It was plainly evident in front
of them. they could see with their own
eyes the transformation in this man. And they knew that it was
done by the power of Jesus Christ. These were undeniable truth. But the sad thing about the account
is that we're then told that those people besought Jesus that
he would depart from them. They didn't want him. They wanted
him to leave, and we're told that's just what he did. The
man with the legion, or had the legion, he wanted to go with
Jesus too, and Jesus told him to, no, go back. Go back to your
home and to your friends and tell them what great things God
has done for you. But the sad thing in that is
the response of these people. They knew who he was, really,
They had seen evidence of what he did and they had seen the
good that had been done, the transformation in the heart and
the life of this man. And yet they wanted him to leave. They wanted nothing of him themselves. Now this morning, we considered
a little of the fullness of Christ. that in him dwelleth all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily. And we barely scratched a mark
in the surface of a subject like that. But we tried to consider
a little of how Christ is God, how that was so clearly evidenced,
that Jesus is God, and what God in Christ has done. and what
he is doing in the lives of his people for sinners. And we saw
something of the fullness of God in his being, in his character,
in his attributes seen in Jesus Christ. If you like, this morning
we've been a little bit like those people in the town. We've
come and we've seen what Jesus is like. We've seen what he has
done. We've seen something of his power. But then, the second verse, the
second in him, is speaking to us, speaking to the Colossian
church, speaking to all God's people to encourage them and
assure them But there is also here surely a word to everyone
to make us consider whether it's true of us or not. Here is the
truth. In him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, but here is the application. Are you in
him? Are you in him he is fully god he is
the glorious savior are you in him ye are complete in him this
word complete really means nothing is lacking there is a fullness
a completeness nothing is lacking. You see, for the believer, for
the Christian that the apostle is writing to in Colossae, he
is saying, because there is such fullness in Christ, and because
you are in him, then that completeness, that fullness is yours. Not that
you are made Christ, of course, not that you are made God, but
that you benefit from that fullness, from that completeness. There
is nothing lacking. There is nothing missing if you
are in him, because he is everything. But if we turn the words the
other way around, ye are complete in him, then surely we have to
reach this inevitable conclusion that if you are not in him, then
you are incomplete. Then there is something lacking. You see, tonight, if we are not
a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, if we are not in him,
then there is so much that is lacking. For we are still in
our sin. We're still lawbreakers. We still
have received no mercy. We still have no given or imputed
righteousness. We still have no relationship
with the Father in heaven. We still have no blood to cleanse
us. We still have no hope of glory. We are lacking, we are
missing. And so tonight, this is our first
consideration, isn't it? Are we complete in him? If we are not, then we are in
the brink of great danger. For we will stand before God
lacking all that he has commanded of us, all of that righteousness
and holiness that his law demands. We all stand lacking before him
in and of ourselves, but if we're not in Christ, then we have no
fullness in him. We have no safety in him. We
have no one else to point to and to plead that he has done
it and fulfilled it for us. If we're not in him, we stand
as we are, incomplete before God. We must be in him. In the Proverbs we read that
the name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous runneth
unto it and is safe. Now you can understand that picture
easily enough. It's a strong tower. It's prepared
for that day of battle, for that day of invasion. It's a place
of safety. But a strong tower does you no
good whatsoever if you're not inside. If you're still outside
in the fields when the invading army comes, you can't just point
to the tower. You can't just look at a tower. You need to be in it. to be safe. So that's the point here. We
can't just understand in a rational and a head knowledge sense that
in Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. We need
to be in Him. Well, what does that mean? What
does it mean for us to be in Him? How do we get in him? Well, in considering this tonight,
I really want to have two accounts in our mind to try and illustrate
this, to understand the depth and the glory of it. And the first is the account
we read. You probably saw the link in our reading, Noah and
the Ark. But the second account, didn't
have time to read that as well, but I hope, I believe you'd all
know it fairly well. And that is the account of the
firstborn and the Passover. Remember the night in Egypt when
God said that the firstborn in each household would die, that
the avenging angel would come through and only those with the
blood of the lamb of the offering The Passover were marked on the
door, only those homes would know safety and life. And it's really, in considering
the ark and the Passover, teaching similar things in many ways to
try and understand something of what it is to be in him. The first point in considering
this is the great danger that they were in. the great danger. We read in the book of Genesis
of how God looked upon the earth and saw the sinfulness of the
world. And he was determined to deal with such sin and he
gives this warning. He says that the flood would
come. There will be destruction. Every
living thing will be destroyed because of sin. An awful devastating
event. You only have to watch videos
of tsunamis and the power of the waves and you need to amplify
that to consider the power of the flood in the destruction
of the world. It was such an awful judgment
And to be there and outside of the ark must have been terrifying. The great danger, because the
world was in sin. We read of the great violence
in the world, the great ungodliness in the world, that the heart
of man was evil continually. There was sin and God was going
to deal with it. We mustn't ever lose sight of that justice of
God. We preach of his mercy, we speak
of his love, quite rightly, but we mustn't forget the justice
of God. He does not overlook sin, though in his mercy he pardons
it. And he's going to deal with it
in the flood, the great danger. And it's the same in Egypt on
the Passover night, the great danger, he has said. It's said
that he's going to go through Egypt, that the angel would pass
through and that there will be death of the firstborn in every
house. There's a sentence of death over the whole land. There's a sentence of death particularly
on the firstborn. And so they were in great danger.
God has said and God will do. There'll be no exception but
through God's way. But there'll be no exception,
the whole land is under this threat. under this promise of
God that he will slay the firstborn in the homes. And so each home
was in danger. Now why? They were in danger, as I say,
because of sin. The world was in danger, the
flood was coming because of sin. It's the heart of men. In a sense you could say that
the Passover was coming, or the death of the firstborn was coming,
because of sin. Because Pharaoh hardened his
heart and refused to let the people go. I know we're told
that God raised up Pharaoh for his glory, the sovereignty of
God was over all of that, but you could say that Pharaoh was
guilty of withstanding the word of the Lord. He refused. He rejected the Lord. And so
God dealt with their sin. Now you can see we are just the
same, aren't we? The wages of sin is death. You don't receive wages if you
don't do something. If you don't have a job, then
you don't get paid. Or if you do a bad job, you might
lose it. You need to earn it to get it. That's what the word is telling
us. The wages of sin is death. You receive death because you
deserved it, because you've earned it. because you've sinned. Sin leads to death. Sin leads to separation from
a holy God. Sin has consequences. And the Lord tells us of that
great, awful judgment day, when there'll be a separation of the
lambs and the sheep and the goats, those on the right and left,
those saved and those lost. How we are all, by nature, in
that great danger. How can we face the holiness
of God? How can we face Him and know
that we are guilty? And if we know that, then we
know He knows that. And so there's a great danger. We're really like Aren't we naturally,
we are really like those facing the day of the flood. They might
not have believed it, they might have laughed at it, they might
have rejected it, but the day came, though it was many, many
years after he first warned Noah to build the ark, though a great
time had gone, the day came. And tonight we may reject it,
we may laugh at it, we may put it from our minds, we may think
it has no bearing to us whatsoever, and it may be many years. But the day comes, just like
it came for them. The danger that they were in. But secondly, the word of the
Lord. You see, the Lord spoke. The
Lord didn't leave them. He spoke to them, both in the
time of the flood and in Egypt. And the first word was a word
of warning. He said to Noah, the flood will come. I will destroy
this earth. Noah, we're told, is a preacher
of righteousness. He must have given warning to the people. The warning that it shall come.
How wonderful of the Lord that he gave a warning. How wonderful
that he told Noah of what was coming. How wonderful that he
told that there was a way, that he had made a way through the
building of the ark. What a wonderful thing that he
said what was coming. And it was the same in Egypt.
He told them what was coming. the night of the Passover didn't
just happen completely unexpectedly, complete surprise and suddenly
every home in Egypt has got the death of their firstborn. No,
he said what was coming. He told them what he was going
to do. Now, God does not lie. God does not say something and
not do it. When he said there would be a
flood of waters, That's what happened when he said there would
be the death of the firstborn, that's what happened. But his
grace was to warn. But then even more than that,
you see, to be told something awful is going to happen, in
many ways you might think we don't want to know, we don't
want to hear that. But he went further than just saying that
something awful was going to happen. He spoke of mercy. He spoke of a way. A way of escape. He told Noah to build an ark. He gave him the size and the
dimensions of it. He told him how to do it. And
he gave him time to do it. The flood didn't come until the
ark was complete. The flood didn't come halfway
through the building, did it? The ark was finished and complete
before it came. And in his mercy, he prepared
this way. and to the Egyptian, or to the
Israelites in Egypt. He showed them a way, a strange
way perhaps, a way they would never have thought of themselves.
It wasn't to flee, it wasn't to get out of Egypt before the
avenging angel came through, but it was God's way. Take a
lamb, kill the sacrifice of the Passover,
put the blood on the doorposts, the mark of the offering, the
mark of the death of the lamb, Then when I see the blood, I
will pass over you. You may think a strange way, but God's way,
the ark, God's way, the Passover lamb, God's way. God warned them
and God showed them a way of mercy. We have in it the word
of the Lord, the Lord speaking, and the Lord speaks today. He speaks of warning. He tells us our state as sinners. He tells us we're lost. He tells
us that awful judgment day. He tells us that we must stand
before him. He tells us that there is a heaven
and there is a hell. He warns us time and again so
that we are no longer in ignorance. can no longer plead that we didn't
know but he speaks of mercy to a way
of salvation you might think well you've gone off your text
a little bit this evening well this is where we come back ye
are complete in him this is the only way of salvation. This is what Noah's Ark was pointing
towards. You see, Noah, that flood destroyed
the world. But we're told that after the
flood, the heart of man was evil continually just as much as it
was beforehand. It wasn't a full salvation. It
wasn't a spiritual salvation. The world was still sunk in sin. It was a picture. The Passover
lamb. Wonderful occasion. The life
of the firstborn on that night. But a lamb cannot take away sin.
The blood of the lamb cannot forgive you your sins. It was
a wonderful night, but it was a picture. It wasn't a fullness.
It was a type. Of what? Of Jesus Christ. They were partial things or little
pictures. But here's the fullness. Ye are
complete in him. God has given the warning and
God shows the way through his word of mercy. It is through
Christ. Christ, who faced the wrath of
God. Christ, who endured all that
his people deserve. Christ, whose own blood was shed,
just like that Passover lamb. Christ who was that suitable
sacrifice, that substitute for his people. Christ who endured
it all at that cross. God has told us. He has spoken
to us through his word of warning and of mercy. Now we thought
of it this morning. In him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. So we know it, don't we? He's
spoken it to us through his word. Well then, thirdly, we come to
this. The absolute necessity of faith. The necessity of faith
in him. That's the vital thing, isn't
it? Faith in him. Faith must be in someone. Faith
must be placed in something. must be having faith in him. Now, that's clear, isn't it?
The days of Noah, it wasn't enough just to know about a flood that
was coming. The days in Egypt, it wasn't
just enough to know there was going to be death of the firstborn.
The days of the flood, it wasn't just enough to know there was
an ark being built. And in Egypt it wasn't just enough
to know that you must take a lamb. You must do it. Noah had to act and build the
ark. He had to believe what God said
was true. And he had to trust that what
God had told him to do was right. that there would be safety in
the ark. And then he had to walk up the
ramp and go in. If he didn't do that, he was
in the same danger as everyone else. In Egypt, they had to believe. They had to believe that when
God said there would be judgment, that there would be. They had
to believe that when God said that if they took the lamb and
they applied the blood, he would be faithful and pass over them.
And they had to believe to the point that they did it. That
they took the blood and applied it and stayed inside. And why did they do that? Why
would they do such a strange thing? Why would Noah build such
an ark? Why would they apply blood of
a lamb? What is that going to do? They
did it by faith. They did it because God had brought
them to believe that what he said was true. God had brought
them to believe and to trust in His way, not their way or
their thoughts, but His way. They, by faith, were in the ark
or in the house. This is the vital thing of faith.
By faith, we are in Christ. believing his word, believing
what he has done, and believing that it might be for me. And so are we, in that sense,
in the ark, or in the house under the blood. Are we in Christ,
in God's way? wholly dependent upon him. The hymn puts it like this, doesn't
it? Give me Christ, or else I die. If I were not in him, then I
will perish. You are complete in him, the
necessity of faith. But then fourthly, think of the
blessing that is found being in the ark or under the blood. Clearly there is safety, wasn't
there? Noah was in the ark, the ark
was lifted above the waters and they were not harmed in any way. The flood did not touch them.
They must have felt the movement, they must have felt in the sense
of what was going on outside, but they were entirely safe.
And the day came when the waters were gone from the land, that
the ark settled, that they came out from the ark alive and well. Think of the rejoicing in the
houses of Egypt, houses of the Hebrews in Egypt. God had been
faithful to his word, that God had passed over them, that the
firstborn was alive and well, that the firstborn and every
family joined the journey. You know, every day that your
firstborn child walked through the wilderness must have been
the day of Thanksgiving. That they were there, that God
had been faithful, that God had saved them. Oh, the blessing that was to
be found in the ark or being under the blood, they had proved
so clearly that God's way was right. That God's way was life. You could think of all sorts
of places to hide during a flood, but none of them preserve life. You might have thought that God
would honor this way, or that way, or if I did this. Surely
God would pass over me. I'm a good Hebrew, or I know
my Torah, or God would, well he wouldn't have known it then,
it wasn't written by Moses, but I know the law and all of these
things. Or God will pass over because we've such a heritage,
and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all these things. You could
have thought of all sorts of reasons why God would pass over
you. But if for some reason, we don't
read of it happening, but hypothetically, if for some reason someone had
thought like that, there would have been death in the house
because there was no blood. They proved that there was life
in God's way. Now this evening, we may have
lots of reasons in our mind as to why God will have mercy on
us. It may be because of our history,
because of our knowledge, because of our works, whatever it might
be. You might think, I have found
that way and I'm sure God will honor it. But this word tells us very clearly
that ye are complete in Him. That's God's way. Jesus Christ
is God's way. Dependence and trust in Him is
God's way. And all who are in Him will find,
just like Noah did, just like the Hebrews did, that they will
prove one day that God's way was life. And to the contrary, all who
found their own way will prove that only God's way is life. Their way was not His way. Now we may feel, we may think,
well, God's way, is it really right? Is it really enough? Is it just for me? To trust in
Christ? Is it just for me to believe? Surely there's more to be done.
Surely there's more than confession of sins and acknowledgement of
guilt. Surely there's works. Surely there's things to be done.
Is it really God's way? Oh, he doesn't speak and then
change his mind. He doesn't lie. He doesn't tell
us untruths. He says, if we confess our sins,
he is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from
all unrighteousness. He is faithful. You see, for all his people,
for that vast church, Christ gave his life. He gave himself. Just like that ark faced all
the batterings of the flood, faced all of the upheaval of
the waters, and the people inside were safe. So Christ faced all
that awfulness of the cross, and all of that punishment for
sin, laid upon him that his people might be safe, might be sure
and certain in him. Tonight we might even be filled
with doubts, but rest assured of this, Christ is that strong
tower that I spoke of earlier. The name of the Lord is a strong
tower. The righteous run into it and
is safe. He is the strong tower. Oh, that we might be in him.
We are complete in him. But then lastly, think of the
praise of the hearts of the people after their deliverance. We're
told that Noah came out of the ark with his family and they
took of the clean beasts and they sacrificed them. There,
built an altar, just outside, they sacrificed thanksgiving
unto the Lord. You can only imagine the joy
and the rejoicing and thanksgiving in the Hebrew homes on the Passover
night or the morning afterwards, as they quickly gathered all
their things and fled Egypt, finally to freedom, and yes,
with the firstborn. Well, praise to the Lord. Praise
for his grace. Praise for his faithfulness.
Praise for his love and his care. Praise for his way that he made
known to them. And believing surely that if
he has done such things for us, then he will go with us into
the days ahead. How Israel needed to prove that,
that the God of the Passover was the God of the Red Sea, and
the God of the Red Sea was the God of the wilderness, and the
God of the wilderness was the God of Jordan, and Jericho, and
Israel, and going on. They needed to realize that he
has shown such mercy to them, that he was their God. Our true
conversion, you see, leads to praise. It leads to thanksgiving
from the heart. It leads to love. It leads to
that, yes, sometimes weak and feeble faith, but that clinging
to this truth that if God has showed me mercy before, then
he'll show me mercy again. If God has revealed himself to
me before, then he surely is with me today. that the God of
the Passover is also the God of the wilderness. I know the Passover in that sense,
the day of liberty for you, might seem many years away, or many
years ago for some. It might seem like a distant
memory. Yet the God who showed you completeness
in Christ is with you to the end. and has not changed one
bit. You are made complete in Him
that day and there still in Him dwells all the fullness of the
Godhead. Can you see something of this
wonderful safety and eternal security that shall be found
in Him. And what does the believer sing?
What is the theme of the song of the redeemed in glory? Now
unto Him that loved us. Unto Him. You see, He's the very
center of glory. The Lamb, as it had been slain,
yet risen again. He is the theme of their song.
He must be the theme of our song. He must be our all and in all. And this evening, hear these
words, these words of great encouragement and assurance, not in you, but
in him. And hear these words of warning
as to where you might be tonight if we're not in him. then we
are incomplete. And yet we live in the day of
grace. We live in the day of God's mercy. If you like, we
live in a day when the door of the ark was still open. We live
in a day that the avenging angel was not yet passed through. The
Lord says, take the blood of the lamb, take the blood of the
Passover, and put it on the doorposts and lintels. when I see the blood,
I will, I will pass over you. For in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in him, which is
the head of all principality and power. May God bless his
word today.